Yo Dwight, wake me when this is over.
The Orlando Magic managed to just barely stave off elimination at the TD Garden in Boston in Game 4. It wasn’t a pretty game by any stretch of the imagination but NBA fans and bettors could at least be happy that it was competitive. Despite the Orlando Magic winning the game you just got the feeling they were only delaying the inevitable.
To give an indication at just how shitty the NBA playoffs have been up to this point, the Orlando Magic staving off the sweep in overtime marked the first overtime game of the entire 2010 NBA playoffs. Never have I threw so many items at my television in one postseason and I’m yelling the same thing, “Where’s fucking the effort!?”
I say Orlando is running out of tricks because once you have to sit Vince Carter and play J.J Reddick to get point production and solid play, you’re in trouble. That’s an adjustment that should be temporary, but in game 4 it looked like Reddick deserved to be playing. If Reddick deserves to be playing and Vince deserves to be sitting on the bench where he can continue to cool cat it and smile and wink at the camera, then Orlando has big problems. Another big problem is Dwight Howard. He’s been ripped in the media for his sporadic and inconsistent play, but I’m not ready to put all of Orlando’s problems on him. He’s not a great back-to-the basket player, so I’ve never understood why Stan Van Gundy insists on force feeding the ball into the post to Dwight who can barely make a 4 foot hook shot, and he is being guarded by one of the best low post defenders in the league in Kendrick Perkins…How is that a good strategy?
Maybe Stan should stop panicking for a moment, and run some pick and rolls with Jameer Nelson, maybe that will give Nelson a pulse again and free up Dwight for easy dunks like we saw in game 4. As for Rashard Lewis, as far as I’m concerned he’s proven that he’s not who we thought he was. In fact, he’s proving right now that he’s not a guy that can be counted on in big games, or in the playoffs for that matter. Lewis is a two time allstar in the league, and right now he’s playing like a dimensional player who just came out of highschool…
If I’m throwing money at this game, my bets are with the Celtics to close this thing out in five. Orlando almost seemed disappointed that Boston didn’t take care of business in game 4. Don’t worry Orlando, it will be all over soon.
